Love and Warfare
by CinderCiela
Summary: Based off of Disney's 'Mulan'. Kagome is bored with her life when her crippled brother Hojo is drafted into battle. She crossdresses and goes in his place, but what awaits her at camp? She makes many new friends and foes, but war is not as glamorous as it seems. Will Kagome's life be full of thrills like she hoped, or will everything eventually come crashing down on her?


**'Suripimachi' literally translates into 'Sleepy town' in Japanese.**

 **I'm trying to improve my writing style with this story, but also improve my development of plot and all that jazz. Please review and tell me what you think. :)**

 **Enjoy _Love and Warfare_.**

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 **Love** _ **and Warfare**_

 _ **Chapter One**_

 _ **In Which There is a Sleepy Town Called Suripimachi**_

 **...The small town of Suripimachi** was always tired, it felt. Rightfully so, it attracted sleepy, tired people with it's grey skies and dreary mornings. Suripimachi was also a terribly poor town, though it's inhabitants would never admit it. The sleepy town and it's sleepy people slowly drifted through life, like dustdevils drift through a desert. The simple people of Suripimachi never left Suripimachi, and never tried to seek their fortune. They lived sleepy lives in a sleepy town from birth to death. There wasn't much to do in the town, either. There was one good restaurant, a cold little school for the children that could afford it, and then there was the inn, Yasuraka Yado.

The inn was run by an old, worn woman who resembled a moldy washcloth. Her skin was hard from work, and thick with wrinkles and her single open eye was no more than a sly bead of brown that watered often from the constant strain of having to peer over the woman's long, heavy face. Her hair was stiff and dry like straw, and always pulled back into a coarse little bun with tufts and sprigs poking out of the fine fishnet material. Her figure was bloated, which made her stand out, as most of the residents of Suripimachi were poor-starved-thin. Her gelatinous belly was always encased in a clean white shirt, buttoned up, every last one, Kami forbid she forgot a button and one of the customers noticed. Her sleeves were always rolled up to her elbows, but never past, and the other workers at the hotel began to wonder what she was hiding her upper arm for. Her pants were a bright red and loose, and she tucked her shirt into them and wore a stiff brown belt around the middle. People would see that belt and wonder how it didn't pop open with all that stomach it was containing. Many suspected sorcery.

The woman's name was Kaede, but, because she was a shopkeeper, her inn became her title. In Suripimachi, townsfolk called her 'Lady of the Inn'. Sleepy visitors who stayed at the inn called her 'Madam Innkeeper'. Because Kaede was one of the few people in Suripimachi who worked, it was quite the honor to be given such a title.

Once, many years ago, Kaede had a younger sister, and she was called 'The Jewel'. Why? Because she was the most beautiful woman to have ever graced Suripimachi with her presence. The sister's name was Kikyou, but that was unimportant to those who called her The Jewel. Kikyou was kind and loving, but more than anything, she was know for her beauty. Her skin was like porcelain, so fin, and smooth like glass, and pale as the fallen snow. When she was a teenager, she never got acne, her face always stayed pearly white. In stark contrast, her hair was as black as death itself. It was thin and silky, but it was also incredibly long. She always wore it long, she stopped cutting it at the bittersweet age of twelve and it had grown perfect since. She was thin, but not too thin, and curvy, in a delicate S shape. She often wore kimonos, in the same color scheme as her sister, bloody red and pure white.

Kikyou was a nurse in the only doctor's office in Suripimachi. There were three nurses that worked there, but for such a small, easygoing town, they didn't need to always be there. Kikyou, however, was the one to show up everyday. Men, sometimes women, even, would purposely hurt or poison themselves just to be able to see her, and talk with her. For a woman, her voice was a low baritone, but it was gentle and soothing. The kind of voice that would put you in an everlasting sleep. If people ever did come to the doctor's small office ill and about to die, they would sometimes ask her to sing them one last lullaby, so they fall to death sleepily and soundly.

Kikyou was a good nurse. She was happy with the thought of making things better for others. But she did not want to do so in Suripimachi. The town was too small, too thin. She wanted to go someplace thick and crowded with people, someplace where the population was bursting at the seams. She wanted to meet new men and start a family, a beautiful, wealthy family that lived in a bright, cheerful house and got to travel on trains and were served three square meals a day. So she left, prepared to find her fortune. She traveled by foot to a nearby town, and fell in love with a handsome man. When she returned to Kaede, she had birthed a baby girl named Kagome.

However, like all who tried to seek their fortune in Suripimachi, Kikyou could not become successful. Her lover was shot and she became ill with a terrible virus from a neighboring town. She was always throwing up brown blood, and her skin was flushed the color of rose. When she died, she left her daughter, Kagome, with Kaede. Years later, Kaede found an orphaned, starving little boy with hair as brown as chocolate and took him in as well. His name was Hojo, and he and Kagome were raised as Kaede's own.

As they grew older, they began to work for Kaede at her inn. Kagome would be taking Kaede's place; she would be the hostess. She'd welcome people into the inn with a bright smile and open arms, and make them feel as if they had left muddy, grey, sleepy Suripimachi for a place all of smiles. Hojo was going to be a cleaning boy, but at the tender age of sixteen, he fell from one of the third floor rooms and threw out his back. He could walk with the support of a cane, or in his case, an old block of wood with a soft ball at the end for him to grip, but his walking was not well. Instead of cleaning, his was now a cook. He made small meals to serve in the stuffy, grey room that passed for a lobby and a café at the same time. Toast with butter and cinnamon in the morning, sandwiches with greens and cheese around noon, and medley soup in the evening.

The two worked for Kaede, and she house them, clothed them, fed them. It was a simple life, that of an innkeeper. As much as Kaede spoke about "honor, honor, honor!" Kagome knew it was simple. And she wanted more than simple. But she dared not seek her fortune, for fear of fate doing to her as it did to her mother. So she continued her simple, sleepy life, as the people of Suripimachi do, with no hopes of anything exciting ever happening to her or to Hojo.

She sighed as she waited behind the dusty old desk of the 'lobby'. No one ever came in that door, or left. Guests at the inn were rare, most likely because the people of Suripimachi all had their own homes, and no one outside of town would ever bother coming to such a cursed, grey little town. She watched the door with a bored, dark eye, a beautiful eye that she inherited from her mother. But, as aid before, it was a bored eye, and eye that knew it would never see anything outside the dreary, sleepy walls of Suripimachi. No one would ever walk through that door...

"Kagome-onee-chan! Look on the TV!" Kagome turned her head a ninety degree angle to her Hojo limping his way down the stairs. His face was lit up with excitement. _Oh, it must be the war_ , thought Kagome dully. Hojo had always wanted to be a soldier, even though he had no hopes of ever doing so, with that back.

Kagome swiveled her head back towards the pasty whitewashed door, imagining what would happen if a soldier came through it right now. It would be quite a sight, wouldn't it? He was burst through the door, dressed like a Samurai, with a sword in hand. He'd be quite beautiful, might I add. Maybe add a smooth mustache and a five o'clock shadow. His eyes would be dark, but full of adventure. 'I request your finest suite!' he's say in a booming tenor. 'Yes, right this way,' Kagome would tell him, going towards the stairs towards the third floor. She'd grab his firm, secure hand, and lead him up the stairs...

But alas, such things never happen in Suripimachi. "What is it, Hojo?" She asked, continuing the scenario in her ever-imaginative mind. 'Where do you come from, soldier? How did you escape the war?' She'd ask the Samurai, ever curious. 'I was chased,' He'd inform her. 'all the way from the battlegrounds to this sleepy little town...'

"Kagome-onee-chan! On TV they said that they were recruiting every male over the age of eighteen to be in the war! And I'm nineteen, and the only boy around you and Mother Kaede, so now I can finally be a soldier!" Hojo beamed excitedly.

Kagome, however, only rolled her eyes. They say that all the time. "They always say that, Hojo, and they never come..." She told him unenthusiastically, making his face fall.

"Besides, you and I _both_ know the sorry soldier _you'd_ make, with your bad back and all." Came a husky voice from the stairwell. Kaede lugged herself faster down those stairs than poor Hojo could. "You'll stay here, and we'll tell them you can't go. They'll understand you can't fight."

But Hojo was going to be soldier if it killed him, he was hellbent on it. "Mother Kaede!" He whined. "I _want_ to be a soldier!"

"No, no, I won't have it. Now go prepare the soup. It's well past six, and our residents are hungry."

Both Hojo and Kagome rolled their eyes in perfect sync. " _What_ residents, Mother Kaede? Nobody's checked in for over a week!"

Kaede huffed, but ignored them, and gave them a look that told them to 'Get your little butts in line, ain't nobody workin' here gonna be a soldier!'. Hojo sighed, and Kagome went back to her fantasy world. This time, it was not a soldier who burst through the door, but a witch. Why, that witch looked exactly like old Kaede! She would be angry, and steaming. 'Get your butts in line!' she'd holler, then cast a spell on Kagome and Hojo that got their butts in line. Kagome would be glued to the chair, and Hojo would get trapped in the kitchen. They would become Witch Kaede's slaves, putting their hearts and souls into the sleepy inn...

The rest of the evening went by more smoothly, and after medley soup was served to all of the two guests currently staying at the inn, Kagome and Hojo were called from the posts for supper with Kaede. Hojo starred at his meal as if it were the most interesting thing on Earth, with a worried look on his face. He wanted to be a soldier, a Samurai! But alas, no one who worked at a sleepy old inn had any chance of being a Samurai. Especially not with the fortune-killing curse of Suripimachi.

Kagome wondered to herself what soldierhood would be like. It would be exciting, much more than the inn. She imagined herself on a battlefield, calling all the shots. There would be swords swinging, and cannonfire, and it would be the most exciting scenario she'd imagined all day. What a life that would be!

The next day went the same, and so did the day after that, but three days later the residents of the sleepy town were called into the town square. The general was there, and despite the town's belief that he would not, he asked for soldiers.

"At least one man," He said to the crowd, which was unfortunately, full of old men and grey woman. "we need at least one man from this town to be a soldier. Please!"

"I'll do it!" Hojo's arm shot up like a rocket. He dropped his cane and attempted to stand on his own and appear strong. "I'll be your soldier!" Kaede and Kagome both tried to get him to back down, but it was too late.

"Wonderful!" Said the general. "He handed Hojo a scroll of paper, which he took gratefully. Hojo was about to tell Kaede and Kagome how happy he was, but no before getting clubbed on the head by both of them.

"What was that for?!"

"You can't be a soldier!"

"You can't go to war, so now who will?!" Kaede fumed.

Kagome thought about it a little. This was her chance! _She_ could go to war! She'd bring back stories of the glories of battle to tell Hojo, and she'd finally, _finally_ get some excitement in life! But she couldn't go as a woman...

"I'll go." She told Hojo and Kaede firmly. "I'll pretend to be Hojo, and I'll go in his place."

"Nonsense! You've got an inn to work at, and you wouldn't crossdress!" Kaede yelled at her, not pleased that she would have to hire a new hostess, no doubt one of the skinny, sleepy old ladies that inhabited Suripimachi.

But Kagome was dead serious. "No. We told them Hojo would go, and he can't, so I'll be Hojo." She put her arms on Hojo's shoulders and smiled. "You can't go to war, but, when I come back, I'll have many stories to tell you, Hojo. Alright?" Hojo nodded.

"Ugh, enough of this!" Kaede growled. "Get your butts in line, and get back to the inn!"

" _No_."

Kaede stared murder at her niece for a few seconds, and when Kagome didn't back down, her eyes softened. The general was right. They needed soldiers to fight in the war, not innkeepers for sleepy little towns. "Are you sure about this?" Kaede asked.

Kagome nodded, and knew that this was the turning point. She was going to get out of Suripimachi. Her life was going to change forever. No longer was she doomed for the life of a sleepy innkeeper, but she would be a soldier, maybe even a Samurai. She would meet people, and learn to be strong...

Yes, this was most certainly going to change her life. And she knew it was for the better.


End file.
